50 Percent of Large Organizations Are Struggling With Business and IT Alignment, Claims Axios Global Survey

Axios Systems, the world’s largest independent provider of enterprise IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions, reveals that organizations are recognizing the value of ITIL-based ITSM approaches in their efforts to better align IT with the business.

Gartner discusses the need for improved alignment in a report published on May 15, 2009, titled “Integrating the Transformation of Business and IT.” The report states, “Executing an integrated IT and business planning process is a critical business competence that will help companies define how they will move from the current state to some defined end-state view of how they will win and make money.”

The results of a recent survey conducted by Axios Systems shows that organizations appear to be responding to Gartner’s advice, along with that from a number of other industry experts, and are now shifting their priorities. Approximately half of professionals surveyed indicated their priorities in the next year include a focus on improving this strategic alignment.

Axios Systems customer Nucor Steel Indiana is an example of an organization that was seeking better alignment between IT and overall business goals. Since implementing Axios’ software solution, assyst, in 2006, the organization has seen results as the two entities (IT and the business) are now working more in tandem. Nucor Steel Indiana has achieved a consistent progression toward IT and business alignment by enhancing its trending analyses, improving visibility for management and ensuring reliable service delivery and responsiveness to requests for changes (RFCs).

“With assyst, we now do a better job of tracking trends and workloads in IT,” said Bill Johnston, IT supervisor at Nucor Steel Indiana. “Items are less likely to fall through the cracks and we deliver RFCs much more consistently. As time goes on, we hope to see IT continually improve its focus on the RFCs that management deems most valuable to the business, which should then translate into more efficient business processes.”

“We are pleased to be able to provide software solutions to best practice-based companies like Nucor Steel Indiana,” said Markos Symeonides, vice president of Axios Systems. “It is great to see an organization using assyst in the exact way that we envision it should be used; Nucor Steel Indiana demonstrates an excellent example of how a holistic approach to ITSM with assyst enables IT organizations to provide value to and propel their businesses.”